Garry Barker dies; promoted crafts, wrote books and columns, and published a newspaper

Funeral services were held today in Flemingsburg, Ky., for Garry Barker, a Kentucky author, newspaper columnist and former publisher of the weekly Flemingsburg Gazette. He suffered from emphysema and died Tuesday at the age of 67. Barker and his wife Danetta sold the Gazette to Chris McGehee of Brandenburg this spring after owning it for almost five years.

Barker, a graduate of Berea College, worked in Berea as an arts administrator for the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen and Berea College Crafts, and was director of the Kentucky Folk Art Center in Morehead. He published 15 fiction and non-fiction books, including short-story collections Fire on the Mountain and Kentucky Waltz, and was known for his weekly column, "Head of the Holler," which appeared in several Kentucky papers. (Read more)

Baltimore Sun columnist John McIntyre, who started his career at the Gazette, wrote of Barker: "Though what fame he achieved was local, and some of his columns betrayed the marks of haste, he was a writer working tirelessly over the years to achieve on his terms what he had seen writers like Jesse Stuart and Harry Caudill and Wendell Berry accomplish: to give a voice and dignity to the people of his region. His work is done, and it was honorable." (Read more)